Global Innovation Index 2020: Who Will Finance Innovation?

• Author: Catherine Jewell
• Position: Publications Division, WIPO

What do the GII 2020 rankings reveal?

Switzerland, Sweden and the United States continue to lead the innovation ranking . For the first time, the Republic of Korea (ranked 10), broke into the top ten group of countries. China (ranked 14), remains the only middle-income country to feature in the top 30 GII economies, with the United Arab Emirates (ranked 34) making it into the top 35 for the first time this year. Similarly, India (ranked 48) and the Philippines (ranked 50) fall within the top 50 countries for the first time. The continuous rise in the rankings of the Philippines is notable having moved up 50 places since 2014.

Over the past seven years, China, the Philippines, India, and Viet Nam have made the most significant progress in the rankings.

While regional innovation divides persist, the GII 2020, which comprises a broad range of metrics, reveals strong innovation performance by a number of emerging economies. For example, Thailand and Malaysia rank first in business R&D and high-tech (net) exports, respectively; Botswana and Mozambique top the leader board for education spending and innovation investment, respectively; and Mexico emerges as the largest creative goods exporter relative to total trade worldwide.

The impact of the crisis on innovation will depend on recovery scenarios and the business and innovation practices and policies that are in place.

Moreover, of the 25 economies that performed better on innovation than their current level of development would predict, eight are from sub-Saharan Africa. Interestingly, India, Kenya, Moldova and Viet Nam have been among this group of “innovation achievers” for ten consecutive years.

GII 2020 also reveals that with respect to science and technology clusters, innovation is concentrated in select high-income countries and China. Tokyo-Yokohama (Japan) is the top-performing cluster once again, followed by Shenzhen-Hong Kong-Guangzhou, (China), Seoul (Republic of Korea), Beijing (China), and San Jose-San Francisco (USA).

Why is this year’s GII focusing on the financing of innovation?

The ability to secure access to sustainable funding sources is a constant challenge for innovators around the world and is becoming particularly difficult as a result of the current COVID-19 pandemic. Finance plays a role at every stage of the innovation cycle from the conceptualization of a product, service or technology through to its commercialization and beyond.

Prior to the pandemic, new...